[Housteau]

I am still getting used to the re-arranging of the forums here on AC and had not even noticed this one before.  So, I guess this is the right place for this post.

I have been listening to several different DACs lately.  Generally I match the levels between components and begin to listen.  I then stop the music, bring it back to the beginning, go over and hit a switch, sit down and restart the music listening to the same section over again with the other DAC.  I can usually distinguish differences this way assuming they are there.  It is fairly easy and it is repeatable.

So, I thought would it be better if I didn't have to get up from my listening position to switch between them?  Would it also be better to just keep the music playing and switch midstream back and forth as often as needed?  With the help from my wife I did just that.  I had her switch when signaled as I sat listening to continuous music.

The differences I had previously heard and repeated were not there.  No matter how often I had her switch back and forth it was impossible for me to tell with any certainty which was better and why.  After trying this for a while and becomming increasingly frustrated, we stopped and went back to my original way of listening.  I still remained seated and had her do the switching, but this time there was a short pause between switches as the music was restarted back to the beginng of each selection.  Once again the differences were easy to distinguish.

The following day I had a friend over to repeat my experiment.  His perceptions were the same as mine where he could hear differences taking the pause to restart the selections, but not when allowing the music to continuously play.  Is this an ear / brain thing?  Is there some natural mechanism in place that makes it much harder for us to detect differences in this way?

[*Scotty*]

Housteau, can you describe the differences you heard between the two DACs? Perhaps if you had used an A B A switching sequence the differences might have been easier to hear. I am guessing that the differences between the two DACs could be characterized as small rather than large.
Scotty

[Housteau]

Housteau, can you describe the differences you heard between the two DACs? Perhaps if you had used an A B A switching sequence the differences might have been easier to hear.

That is basically how I am set up to do my comparisons.  A simple toggle switch selects either from source A, or B.  So, it is easy to go from A to B back to A.  To confirm findings I also switch the components so that the opposite one is now on source A just in case there is a sonic character to the switching itself.  Also, my transport allows several digital signals to leave at the same time in parallel, so it remains connected.  Those cables get switched back and forth as well to verify findings.

Those differences were not that small.  They seemed to cover the entire spectrum from the bass on up.  The one DAC (Monarchy NM24) sounds very musical and orgainic, especially with the vocals.  However, that smooth nature comes at the expense of less sharper lines drawn around leading edge attacks and general focus.  When compared to the other DAC (Benchmark DAC1) this becomes very obvious.  On my system the Monarchy is too polite.

I never used to like the Benchmark finding it dry and cold in character and the Monarchy always sounded like real music to me.  But, now with a few changes to my system which I feel makes it better resolving, I am able to better appreciate what the Benchmark can do.  It no longer sounds dry at all.  It just sounds right. 

The point of all this no matter which DAC I now prefer and why, is that I can easily tell them apart, but only as I described in my opening post.

[Russell Dawkins]

if your wife or anyone were to operate the switch without you knowing which way the switch is set and you were to listen from the top the way you describe, with a short interval between, can you identify the D/A converter?

[Housteau]

if your wife or anyone were to operate the switch without you knowing which way the switch is set and you were to listen from the top the way you describe, with a short interval between, can you identify the D/A converter?

My wife did not do this for me, but I did this for my friend and he was able to separate between the two recognizing the same attributes.  My personal testing was not blind, but it was biased.  My preference was to like the Monarachy and validate my previous purchase decision.  The differences are really not that subtle between these two.

[doug s.]

try this: do it per your chosen method, from start of song, doing it over & over again.  but, make sure you do not know which dac is being used.  do it, say 6-8 times, have the switcher sometimes switch between the two dacs, and other times, repeat the track w/o switching the dacs.  if the differences are really not that subtle, then you should be able to identify which is which.

for a couple years, i used to blind-a/b test tunas, but of course, i couldn't go back to the original track over and over.     but, w/a creek obh-12 between tunas and preamp, i could easily close my eyes, switch between two tunas w/a single button on the remote, and i would have no idea which tuna i would be listening to, when i was done rapidly pressing the button.  then, i would try to see if i could determine which of the two tunas i thought was playing...

doug s.